Gigabit ethernet line driver and hybrid architecture

ABSTRACT

A gigabit ethernet line driver includes a transmitter having both transmitter and active hybrid outputs. The transmitter consists of a plurality of transmitter clusters each connected to both the transmitter and active hybrid outputs. Each transmitter cluster includes a plurality of transmitter cells consisting of a driver cell and digital to analog converter connected to driver cell. A hybrid circuit connects between the transmitter outputs and receiver inputs for separating a receiver signal from the transmitter signal responsive to a tuning signal.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to ethernets, and more particularly, togigabit ethernet line drivers.

2. Description of the Related Art

Ethernet standards 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX have become dominant in LocalArea Networks (LAN) applications due to the low cost and wide use oftransmission media based on unshielded twisted pair cable (UTP). Thedevelopment of these standards has resulted in an emerging 1000BASE-Tstandard, which provides a significantly higher data transmission rate.The higher transmission rate has been achieved not only by doubling thenumber of cables of the transmission lines, but by also implementing afull duplex transmission mode with multi-level signaling.

Compared to the above-mentioned standards these features havedramatically changed the parameter requirements of the receiver and thetransmitter. The multilevel signaling requires substantially more linearperformance and lower noise generation from both the transmitter and thereceiver. Full duplex operation requires an accurate hybrid to separatethe received signal from the transmitted one at the input of thereceiver. The hybrid output still contains some leftovers from thetransmitted signal as well as additional signals reflected fromdifferent parts of the cable and cross talk signals coming from othercables. All these signals known as echoes are usually removed from thereceived signal by a DSP echo canceller incorporated in the receive pathof the transceiver. The effective operation of the echo cancellerdepends on the level of non-linear distortions and noise generated inthe analog portion of the transmit and receive path of the transceiver.Hence not only the hybrid should be added to the analog blocks used inthe earlier standards, but the parameters of the existing blocks need tobe substantially improved to be suitable for 1000BASE-T standard.

One possible solution is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,745. Thedriver is made of a plurality of switchable current Digital-to-Analogconverter (DAC) cells. In order to reduce the high frequency noisegenerated by the combination of the current switches and the parasiticinductance and capacitance of the chip package and the transformer, thedriver output should be filtered. Because the driver produces asignificant current, and the input impedance of the transformerconnected to the transmission line together with the matching resistanceis just a few tens of Ohms, the capacitance of the driver output filtermust be very large and is not well suited for location in thetransceiver chip. The hybrid is created as a smaller replica driver,which produces a current proportional to the current of the driver. Thehybrid current is applied to a pair of resistors connected to the driveroutputs. This partially cancels the transmitted signal voltage at thereceiver input. In this architecture, the hybrid is controlled by thesame digital input and clock used in the driver portion of thetransceiver. To get a good compensation of the transmitted signal thehybrid output filter should be well matched with the output filter ofthe driver.

A different solution is proposed by Roo, et al., “A CMOS TransceiverAnalog Front-End for Gigabit Ethernet Over CAT-5 Cables,”2001 IEEEInternational Solid-State Circuit Conference, Session 19, Digest ofTechnical Papers. page 310 (2001). In this driver, a DAC is coupled tothe transformer through a current mirror with a substantial currentgain. This enables the use of smaller filter capacitors on the DACoutput. The active hybrid transistors have their gates connected to thesame current mirror and better match the hybrid frequency response withthe one of the driver. However, because of the nonlinear behavior of theMOS transistor transconductance, the charge accumulated at the filtercapacitors together with the gate capacitors of the transistorsintroduces substantial distortions into dynamic behavior of thetransmitted signal. The trajectories of the driver output are not quiteproportional for the signals of different amplitude. This can beconsidered as non-linear distortions. Although the gates of the hybridtransistors are connected to the gates of the driver transistors, thedistortions of the transmitted signal leak into the receive path becauseof an imperfect match of the hybrid and driver. It creates a problem fora DSP echo canceller to remove this part of the echo. Because thecanceller is usually a linear device, the distortions lift up the noiselevel and reduce the signal to noise ratio.

To reduce the non-linear distortions in the driver, the driver outputtransistor transconductance linearity must be improved. It can be doneby increasing the operating current and introducing degeneratingresistors to the MOS transistors source nodes. This leads to substantialloss of the power efficiency of the driver. Thus, there is a need for apower efficient driver with low-level, non-linear distortions for1000BASE-T application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the foregoing and other problems with agigabit ethernet line driver consisting of a transmitter and hybridcircuit. The transmitter includes the transmit signal output and activehybrid signal output, and includes a plurality of transmitter clustersconnected both to the transmit and active hybrid outputs. Eachtransmitter cluster includes a plurality of transmitter cells,consisting of a driver cell and a digital to analog converter connectedto the driver cell. The hybrid circuit is connected between thetransmitter outputs and the receiver inputs to separate a receiversignal from a transmitter signal. The hybrid circuit is responsive to atuning signal provided by a hybrid tuner.

In a first embodiment, the hybrid circuit consists of first and secondresistor strings connected between the receiver inputs and thetransmitter outputs. A plurality of transistor switches are connected totaps of each of the first and second resistor strings, and a decoderselects a pair of the transistor switches to connect to a particular tapthat provides a current to compensate for a transmitted signal at thereceiver inputs. In a second embodiment, the hybrid includes first andsecond resistors connected between the transmitter outputs and thereceiver input. First and second tunable current mirrors are coupled tothe receiver inputs and each of the first and second resistors toprovide an adjustable compensation current, responsive to a controlsignal to compensate for a transmitted signal at the receiver inputs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the system and method of the presentinvention may be obtained by reference to the following DetailedDescription when taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a driver and hybrid having true linearityaccording to the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a transmitter decoder;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a transmitter,

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a transmitter cell cluster used in1000BASE-T 100BASE-TX, and 10BASE-T modes;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a transmitter cell of a cluster asillustrated in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 illustrates a 10BASE-T least significant bit transmitter cell;

FIG. 7 illustrates a simplified basic circuit diagram of a currentdriver cell,

FIG. 8 illustrates a first embodiment of a hybrid;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a decoder for use with the hybrid of FIG.8;

FIG. 10 illustrates a further embodiment of a hybrid,

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a hybrid tuning block;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a reversible counter;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an up/down counter cell,

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a delay line;

FIG. 15 is a schematic of a comparator used with the first embodiment ofthe hybrid illustrated in FIG. 8;

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of a comparator used with the secondembodiment of the hybrid illustrated in FIG. 10; and

FIG. 17 is a circuit diagram of a bias generator.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to the drawings and more particularly FIG. 1, there isillustrated a block diagram of a driver and hybrid with improvedlinearity according to the present invention. The device includes adecoder 10, which converts input data bits 15, 20 into a temperaturecode used in the D/A converter of the transmitter 30. Multi-phase clock35 and sign representing bits 40 are directly connected to thetransmitter 30. The output of the transmitter 30 is connected totransformer 50. The secondary coil of the transformer 50 is connected toa twisted pair cable 55. The other end 60 of the twisted pair cable 55is to connect to a similar transceiver (not shown). The outputs of thetransmitter 30 are connected to active hybrid 65, which separates thesignal received from the cable 55 from the signal generated by thetransmitter 30. The hybrid 65 contains resistors tuned by the digitaloutput 70 of hybrid tuner 75. This is necessary because in a standarddigital semiconductor CMOS process, the resistors usually do not havesufficient precision. The output of the hybrid tuner block 75 can befrozen by input 80 to avoid glitches in the hybrid 65 performance duringthe active transmit/receive mode. Bias generator 85 produces biasvoltages for the other blocks or the driver. The bias generator 85receives a stable reference voltage 90 from a band gap referencegenerator, which is not shown.

The block-diagram of transmitter decoder 10 is shown in FIG. 2. Thedecoder 10 contains circuitry 220 for converting a three bit code B<0:2>into an eight bit thermometer code output OU<2:9> used by the mostsignificant bit part of the transmitter 30, and a 10BASE-T leastsignificant bit decoder portion 222, which just inverts the input bitsB<10:11>. The decoder 10 generates the code, which controls only theabsolute value of the signal transmitted by the transmitter 30. The signbits are applied to the transmitter 30 directly.

The transmitter 30 block diagram is shown in FIG. 3. The transmitter 30contains a plurality of transmitter clusters 100, 105. Transmittercluster 100 is active when the transmitter 30 is generating a positiveoutput, and transmitter cluster 105 is active if the output is negative.The number of transmitter clusters 100, 105 is equal to the number ofvoltage steps generated by the transmitter 30 in a 1000BASE mode ofoperation. The transmitted clusters 100, 105 are organized in a unarytype architecture to improve the linearity of the transmitted signal.All clusters are connected to the same hybrid output nodes 110. Thetransmitter 30 also contains additional sets of least significant10BASE-T driver cells 115, 120. They are necessary to produce a smoothsine-like waveform required in this standard. All clusters 100, 105 andcells 115, 120 are connected to the same transmitter output nodes 125.

The block-diagram of a transmitter cell cluster 100, 105 used in1000BASE-T and 100BASE-TX modes is shown in FIG. 4. The cluster 100, 105contains three identical transmitter cells 117 receiving the same databit 130. The cells 117 are controlled by individual clock phases 135.This is done to achieve the required 1000BASE-T standard wave shape. Allcells 117 are connected to the same transmitter output nodes 125 and thesame hybrid output node 110.

The block-diagram of a transmitter cell 117 of the cluster 100, 105 isshown in FIG. 5. The cell 117 contains Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC)portion 150 and current mirror driver portion 155. The DAC portion 150consists of a DC current source 160 connected to the constant biasvoltages PBIAS1 and PBIAS2, and current switch 165 controlled by D-latch170. Driver portion 155 of the cell 117 consists of two identicalcurrent mirror driver cells 180. 10BASE-T least significant bittransmitter cell, shown in FIG. 6, is built in similar way. This celldoes not have hybrid outputs, which are not used in 10BASE-T standard.As well as this cell needs only a single clock phase used in 10BASE-Tmode.

A simplified basic circuit diagram of current mirror driver cell 180 isshown in FIG. 7. The driver cell 180 has current mirror architecturewith current input 185 and two current outputs 190 and 195. The cell 180contains input current path 200 connected to current input 185, hybridcurrent path 205 connected to output 190 and transmitter current path210 connected to output 195. The current gain of the transmitter portionof the mirror is substantially higher than one. Path 210 contains twoportions: 210 a is always active, 210 b is enabled only in 10BASE-T modeby signal 215 to increase the current gain of the driver in this mode.

The main difference of the transmitter 30 described from the one used inthe first prior art example is that each individual transmitter cell 117of the clusters 100, 105 contains a DAC 150 portion and a current mirrordriver portion 155, which in turn contains both driver and active hybridcurrent paths 205, 210. The described structure enables the transmittedsignal to be filtered at the driver input and save substantial chiparea. Because the hybrid signal path 205 is controlled by exactly thesame filtered input voltage as the driver path 210, good high frequencyhybrid-driver matching can be achieved.

The difference from the second prior art example is each driver cell 180still consists of a current mirror driver 155 with the driver path andhybrid replica path with inherent dynamic non-linear distortions, thisdoes not affect the non-linear distortions of the transmitter-hybridoperation. This is because the trajectories of the transmitter outputsignal are the same in all the transmitter clusters. If it necessary totransmit a signal with higher amplitude, a larger number of identicaltransmitter clusters are involved. Thus, the trajectories are alwaysproportional and are not dependent on the signal amplitude. Thenon-linear distortion of the transmitter and hybrid will be onlydetermined by the accuracy of the identical transmitter clustersmatching.

One possible embodiment of the hybrid 65 is presented in FIG. 8. Thehybrid 65 contains two resistor strings 225 and 230 connected betweendifferential transmitters outputs and hybrid outputs connected to thereceiver input. The taps of the resistor string 225, 230 are connectedto the differential hybrid inputs (these inputs are connected to thehybrid output of the transmitter) through transistor switches 235. Onlyone pair of the switches 235 can be simultaneously selected by decoder240. The input of the decoder 240 is generated by the hybrid tuningblock 75 shown in FIG. 11. This block 75 chooses the switch 235 in sucha way that the part of the resistor strings 225 and 230 located to theleft from the chosen tap has a predetermined value of resistance. Inthis case, the current coming from the hybrid output of the transmitter30 will provide the best compensation of the transmitted signal at thereceiver input. The decoder block-diagram is shown in FIG. 9. It decodesa three bit input code into eight output signals.

Another possible embodiment of the hybrid 65 is shown in FIG. 10. Thehybrid 65 contains a pair of resistors 245 coupling the transmitteroutput with the receiver. In this embodiment instead of adjustableresistors, the value of the compensation current is adjustable. This isdone by activating appropriate paths in current mirror slave transistors250 and 255 receiving the bias voltage from master transistors 260 and265 of the current mirror. The control bits ADJB<0:2> are generated tomatch the compensation gain of the current mirror to the actual value ofthe resistors 245. Although the current mirror may introduce somedynamic distortions to the signal, the value is substantially smallerthan the one that can be possible produced by the current mirror driver.This is because the current mirror gain in this case is smaller thanone. As well as due to small current consumption of the hybrid comparedto driver, the operating current of the hybrid current mirror can besubstantially increased without affecting the power efficiency.

The hybrid tuner 75 block diagram is shown in FIG. 11. The hybrid tuner75 contains comparator 275 and reversible counter 280. The comparator275 receives two input currents from the bias generator 85 (FIG. 1). Onecurrent “CURREF” is temperature and process independent. The other“CURRINT” is generated using a stable reference voltage and internal forthe chip resistors. Thus, this current value is reverse proportional tothe chip resistor's actual value. The comparator 275 receives the tuningbits ADJ<0:2> from the counter 280. If the code of the bits correspondsto the best matching of the hybrid 65, both outputs of the comparatorare low. If the bits should be changed, the comparator 275 produceseither “GOUP” or “GODOWN” for the counter 280 according to the directionfor the code to be changed. The reversible counter 280 changes itsoutput until the comparator 275 conditions are satisfied.

The reversible counter 280 block diagram is shown in FIG. 12. Thereversible counter 280 contains delay 285, which together with NOR gate290 composes a ring oscillator, RS-latch 295, stores the direction ofthe count; and set of the counter cells 300. If both signals “GOUP” and“GODOWN” are low, the ring oscillator 300 is disabled. The counteroutput in this case remains unchanged. If either of the inputs goes“HIGH”, the ring oscillator 300 is enabled. The clock cycles are countedeither upward or downward until both inputs return to “LOW.” The blockdiagrams of the up/down counter cell 280 and delay line 285 are shown inFIGS. 13 and 14 respectively.

The schematic of the comparator 275 used for the first embodiment of thehybrid 65 (FIG. 8) is shown in FIG. 15. The comparator 275 contains areplica of the hybrid resistor string 305 with switches 310 connected tothe resistor taps. The switches 310 are controlled by a decoder 315similar to decoder 240 (FIG. 9). The selected switch applies a processindependent current generated by current mirror 320 to the respectivepart of the resistor string 305. A process dependent current generatedby current mirror 335 is applied to resistor 315 to create a referencevoltage drop across the resistor. Transconductor cell 330 converts thevoltage difference between the reference resistor 315 and the resistorstring 305 in its output current applied to the current comparator 342.The limits of the comparator are set by current sources 340 a and 340 b.If the transconductor current exceeds the limit, either “GOUP” or“GODOWN” goes “HIGH”.

The schematic of the comparator 275 used for the second embodiment ofthe hybrid 65 (FIG. 10) is shown in FIG. 16. The comparator 275 containsa replica 350 of a hybrid cell. The replica 350 (presents the slaveside) and master transistor 355 composes a current mirror, whichreceives a reference process independent current “CURREF”. A processdependent current “CURRINT” is applied to the drain node of replica 350.Tile current difference is applied to current comparator 360, which wasdescribed above.

The bias generator 85 circuit diagram is shown in FIG. 17. The biasgenerator 85 contains two similar portions: portion 400, which isresponsible for generation of the process independent reference voltagesand currents; and portion 405 responsible for generation of the processdependent current. They contain external precise resistor 410, connectedto an n external pin of the chip, and internal process dependentresistor 415. Each portion 400, 405 contains an operational amplifier420 connected in a loop with a current source 425 and to the respectiveresistor 410, 415. The loop maintains the voltage drop across theresistor 430 equal to the input reference voltage. Hence, the outputcurrents of the portions 400, 405 are reverse proportional to therespective resistor values. At the same time portion 400 generates thebias voltages used by other blocks of the transceiver.

The previous description is of a preferred embodiment for implementingthe invention, and the scope of the invention should not necessarily belimited by this description. The scope of the present invention isinstead defined by the following claims.

1. A gigabit ethernet line driver, comprising: a transmitter having bothan analog differential transmitter output and an analog differentialactive hybrid output, comprising: a plurality of transmitter clusterseach connected to both the transmitter and the active hybrid outputs; aplurality of transmitter cells within each of the plurality oftransmitter clusters, each transmitter cell further comprising: a drivercell including positive and negative current mirror circuits forgenerating a differential analog transmit signal and a differentialanalog active hybrid signal which is a current mirrored copy of thedifferential analog transmit signal, the differential analog transmitsignal and differential analog active hybrid signal being connected tothe analog differential transmitter output and analog differentialactive hybrid output, respectively; and a digital to analog converterconnected to the driver cell, the converter comprising a source ofconstant current and a switching circuit operating to switch theconstant current between the positive and negative current mirrorcircuits in response to a transmit data bit value; a hybrid circuitconnected between transmitter outputs and receiver inputs and receivingthe active analog hybrid output, the hybrid circuit operating toseparate a receiver signal from a transmitter signal responsive to atuning signal and the received active analog hybrid output; a hybridtuner for providing the tuning signal.
 2. The line driver of claim 1,wherein the transmitter further comprises a plurality of 10BASE-T drivercells for providing a differential signal having a smooth sine-likewaveform which is applied to the analog differential transmitter output.3. The line driver of claim 1, wherein the digital to analog converterfurther comprises a latch for receiving the transmit data bit value andcontrolling the switching circuit.
 4. The line driver of claim 1,wherein each of the positive and negative current mirror circuits of thedriver cell comprises a pair of output current paths, one of whichprovides the analog transmit signal and the other provides the analogactive hybrid signal.
 5. The line driver of claim 1, wherein the hybridfurther comprises: first and second resistor strings connected betweenthe receiver inputs and the transmitter outputs, the first and secondresistor strings each comprising a plurality of resistors with taps oneach of the resistors; a plurality of transistor switches connecting thetaps of each of the first and second resistor strings to the hybridinputs; and a decoder for selecting a pair of the plurality oftransistor switches connecting to a particular tap such that a currentto compensate for a transmitted signal is provided at the receiverinputs.
 6. The line driver of claim 1, wherein the hybrid furthercomprises: first and second resistors connecting the transmitter outputsto the receiver inputs; first and second current mirror slavetransistors coupled to the receiver input and each of the first andsecond resistors for providing an adjustable compensation currentresponsive to a control signal.
 7. A gigabit ethernet line driver,comprising: a transmitter having both transmitter and active hybridoutputs, comprising: a plurality of transmitter clusters each connectedto both the transmitter and the active hybrid outputs; a plurality oftransmitter cells within each of the plurality of transmitter clusters,each transmitter cell further comprising: a driver cell; a digital toanalog converter connected to the driver cell; a hybrid circuitconnected to the transmitter outputs for separating a receiver signalfrom a transmitted signal responsive to a tuning signal, wherein thehybrid further comprises: first and second resistor strings connectedbetween the receiver inputs and the transmitter outputs, the first andsecond resistor strings comprising a plurality of resistors; a pluralityof transistor switches connecting the taps of each of the first andsecond resistor strings to the hybrid inputs; a decoder for selecting apair of the plurality of transistor switches connecting to a particulartap such that a current to compensate for a transmitted signal isprovided at the receiver inputs; and a hybrid tuner for providing thetuning signal.
 8. The line driver of claim 7, wherein the transmitterfurther comprises a plurality of 10BASE-T driver cells for providing asmooth sine-like waveform.
 9. The line driver of claim 7, wherein thedigital to analog converter further comprises: a DC current source; acurrent switch connected to the DC current source; and a latch forcontrolling the current switch.
 10. The line driver of claim 7, whereinthe driver cell further comprises a pair of current mirrors eachindependently connected to the digital to analog converter.
 11. The linedriver of claim 10, wherein each of the pair of current mirrors of thedriver cell further comprises a pair of output current paths, one ofwhich is connected to the transmitter driver output and the otherconnected to the hybrid transmitter output.
 12. A gigabit ethernet linedriver, comprising: a transmitter having both an analog differentialtransmitter output and an analog differential active hybrid output,comprising: a plurality of transmitter clusters each connected to boththe transmitter and the active hybrid outputs; a plurality oftransmitter cells within each of the plurality of transmitter clusters,each transmitter cell further comprising: a driver cell includingpositive and negative current mirror circuits for generating adifferential analog transmit signal and a differential analog activehybrid signal which is a current mirrored copy of the differentialanalog transmit signal, the differential analog transmit signal anddifferential analog active hybrid signal being connected to the analogdifferential transmitter output and analog differential active hybridoutput, respectively; and a digital to analog converter connected to thedriver cell, the converter comprising a source of constant current and aswitching circuit operating to switch the constant current between thepositive and negative current mirror circuits in response to a transmitdata bit value.
 13. The line driver of claim 12, wherein the transmitterfurther comprises a plurality of 10BASE-T driver cells for providing adifferential signal having a smooth sine-like waveform which is appliedto the analog differential transmitter output.
 14. The line driver ofclaim 12, wherein the digital to analog converter further comprises alatch for receiving the transmit data bit value and controlling theswitching circuit.
 15. The line driver of claim 12, wherein each of thepositive and negative current mirror circuits of the driver cellcomprises a pair of output current paths, one of which provides theanalog transmit signal and the other provides the analog active hybridsignal.